The "Something I Never Learned In School - Did You?" Story

It was an ordinary day.  Sitting in front of my desktop computer with my two cats nearby watching out the window to make sure nothing tries to get into my office and scare me.  When they see something scary, they take off and that is their message to me to take a look outside!  Seems all is clear right now...so I will begin my story for today.  Story about The Richmond Bread Riot which occurred on April 2, 1863.  I realize I was not a good student of history during my high school and college careers, but that began to change as I became part of that history that people read about.  But, that still doesn't include the bread riot.  Well, seems that during the Civil War there was a lack of food, money and supplies which created  unbearable conditions for women living in the southern United States.  Lack of supplies left families in big need, but women were especially affected and they felt the financial pinch more than others.  Then the drought of 1862 arrived and impacted the harvest.  Food supplies became scarce and salt needed for preserving meat became more scarce.  In the spring of 1863 tensions were at an all-time high and civil unrest broke out across the South.  The unrest was organized by women who were enraged by the high price of bread.  They raided stores, stealing food, clothing and supplies.  The largest of these Southern riots took place in Richmond, Virginia on April 2, 1863.  The month before a woman named Mary Jackson started to recruit women to be part of an organized protest.  She was upset with the government who weren't able to help the families of soldiers who were fighting for the Confederate side in the Civil War.  About 300 women provided support for her and on the morning of April 2 they arrived at Richmond and began marching towards the governor's office in Capitol Square.  Some claim that the governor did come to speak to the women, while others said an angry crowd marched towards Ninth Street with hundreds behind them.  They were armed with guns, hatchets and household implements and began to chant "Bread or Blood!"  They broke into grocery stores, warehouses and other businesses, stealing food, supplies and even fine jewelry.  Wasn't long before Mayor Joseph Mayo arrived and read the Riot Act aloud to the mob.  Didn't matter, since they ignored him.  Gov. John L. Letcher sent for Confederate President Jefferson Davis and he begged the women to disperse, telling them that he would order open fire on them if they didn't back off.  As Davis watched the women, he emptied his pockets, throwing money to them.  That finally eased the tension and the crowd disbursed.  Confederate secretary of war James A. Seddon asked the local press to refrain from publishing news of the incident, fearing it would fuel Union propaganda.  Didn't matter since Union prisoners who watched from their cell windows somehow leaked the story and on April 8, The New York Times had the story on the front of their newspaper.  Jackson was arrested as well as more than 60 others.  Their punishment was nominal.  After that the City of Richmond increased efforts to provide aid to the poor, restoring a measure of calm.  The 1863 bread riots showed just how hard life had become for women on the home front.  An article in "The Lancaster Examiner" dated April 15, 1863 had a headline that read "Bread Riots".  The story told of the bread riots that had arrived in the South.  In the very capitol of the Confederacy, under the eye of Jeff Davis and his brothers in mischief, three thousand starving women have raged along the streets, broken open and sacked stores, and supplied themselves with food and clothing wherever they could.  A few weeks ago the same had happened in Savannah; and a short time before the women of Atlanta helped themselves in like manner, presenting pistols at the heads of shopkeepers.  Five days later a story about The Bread Riots appeared in the "Liverpool Mercury" titled Bread Riots in Richmond and nine days after a story appeared in The Chanute Times telling the same story.  I'm not quite sure where Liverpool and Chanute might have been, but they got in on the news to sell their newspapers.  Always happens that way.  It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.